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Japanese: 20 months invested so far.

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yogert909
Newbie
United States
jonkenpo.net
Joined 3794 days ago

5 posts - 7 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese

 
 Message 1 of 3
18 November 2014 at 2:14am | IP Logged 
I just thought I would bounce my study plan off you guys and see if there's any room for improvement.

First, I should mention that I only have 60-90 minutes per day total for study. I'm basically learning Japanese on my phone while I walk the dog and during
lunch. I have other things going on and I don't feel like spending any more time then that. That said, I've been doing this every single day for 20 months, so am
in this for the long haul.

Given my time constraints, I estimate that it would take me 8 months to learn the jouyou kanji and I believe that time could be put to better use learning 1,000s
of vocabulary. Since my main interest in learning Japanese is speaking and listening, I've decided that my time would be better spent studying vocabulary and
grammar and put kanji on hold. I also don't mind spending time doing extra "passive" activities such as listening to podcasts and watching tv, so getting to the
stage where I can follow along could effectively double the amount of time I spend with japanese.

Currently my vocabulary is around core2.5k with another 1k deck that undoubtedly contains a lot of overlap. So let's say i currently have a vocabulary around 3k.
I've learned a few hundred kanji, but I'm only adding a few here and there to keep from getting too bored with vocabulary. At the rate I'm going I'll probably
finish rtk lite around the time I finish core 6k. I've also gone 2/3 of the way through tae kim's grammar.

My plan for now is to keep forging ahead with (core)vocabulary acquisition as fast as I can. I've been doing 2 cards for each word - one vocab recognition card
and one sentence understanding card. I've found that adding the sentence card speeds my overall acquisition, even considering that it's twice as many cards. If
you're wondering, my cards have furigana on the front, so I'm reading kana, not kanji. I've also started listening to japanese pod101 in the car for some listening
practice(doesn't count as study time). I'm also considering some subs2srs study as soon as I can get a deck made. Eventually I will start watching japanese
shows and listen to podcasts, but with my small vocabulary, I still can't follow along yet. Once I can follow along, I'll be able to spend a lot of extra listening time
so getting to that stage quickly is my singular focus right now.

How does all of this sound to you? Is there anything you might do differently if you were in my position?
1 person has voted this message useful



Jimjam
Newbie
Australia
Joined 3988 days ago

19 posts - 22 votes
Studies: Japanese, German

 
 Message 2 of 3
19 November 2014 at 2:09am | IP Logged 
That sounds like a pretty good plan. Since you just want to focus on speaking/listening,
it should definitely help get the job done. I wouldn't change anything, though you may
want to think about adding some way to practice speaking, whether it be via skype, or
with natives in person.
If the plan is working for you, definitely keep at it!
1 person has voted this message useful



AlexTG
Diglot
Senior Member
Australia
Joined 4640 days ago

178 posts - 354 votes 
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Latin, German, Spanish, Japanese

 
 Message 3 of 3
19 November 2014 at 2:46am | IP Logged 
You should start reading manga. They typically use furigana on all words so unlike every
other type of native material you won't have to worry about kanji. If you get the English
translation as well you can use it as a parallel text. If you read a manga that's been
turned into an anime then you'll be giving yourself an excellent preparation for watching
your first TV show.


1 person has voted this message useful



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